[mythtv-users] New Custom Record

Brad Templeton brad+myth at templetons.com
Sun Dec 12 20:41:46 UTC 2004


On Sun, Dec 12, 2004 at 11:57:25AM -0800, Bruce Markey wrote:
> this is a bug (read over sight on my part) for this type of show
> regardless of the record rule. The duplicate detection sees these
> DD listings as unidentified episodes of a series so it wants to
> record all of them. However, they are actually each individual

In other areas, I have suggested the following duplication detection
approach for programs that do not have detailed listing data (like The
Daily Show and many others.)

a) If the show has closed captioning, extract and record it in the database.
(Try to record for the show only, not for commercials.)

Then, when you start recording a new show that you are not sure is a duplicate,
examine the captions.  If you get a large number of identical captions
for several minutes (ie. not commercials nor any voice-over on the standard
intro) you have a duplicate -- give up recording or delete it.

b) With no closed captioning, instead record the time gap between scene
transitions.  In mpeg a scene transition will generate various clues such
as a complete new frame.   Don't know if you could do it in mjpeg.
The sequence of time gaps between scene transitions will be precise and
unique to every program out there, changing only due to the placement of
commercials -- or the much-later re-editing of shows and movies to fit
shorter timeslots.   Also, time compression done by some stations would add
a small amount of slop.   But none of these things would stop you from
detecting that the same program has been shown twice in the same day or week.


Of course, these methods would not free up a tuner for you to record other
shows, they would primarily let you save disk space and clean up your show
list.  You could finally say "Record the Daily Show" and get it just once
a day.


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